Tom Hardy's Star Wars: Episode VIII Role Could Look Like This

Following in the now grand tradition of big Hollywood stars hiding in Star Wars films (like Daniel Craig playing a stormtrooper in The Force Awakens), Tom Hardy is the latest A-lister to be linked with a role in Episode VIII. According to Making Star Wars, those rumours are entirely true, and they've got the inside track on what he'll actually be doing in his "small sequence".

Here's how the site's little birdssee the role:

Tom Hardy plays a First Order stormtrooper.Said stormtrooper glimpses FN-2187 on a secret mission but doesn€™t realize it.The €œincognito€ FN-2187 is surprised when the stormtrooper walks up behind him and slaps him on the ass.FN-2187 turns around and believes he€™s dead. He€™s surely going to be captured.The stormtrooper is elated to see his old friend from back during their First Order academy days.The stormtrooper congratulates FN-2187 on his promotion to Resistance infiltrator and spy.FN-2187 is free to go about his business to his amazement.

So another similarly comedic moment to Daniel Craig's big scene in The Force Awakens. Presumably Hardy will tone down his tendency to over-perform vocally so we can actually hear what he's saying this time out. The source seems to think that he won't remove his helmet, which would make sense in preserving the comic magic of the moment.

As Making Star Wars point out, this presumably means that most of the Empire staffers who knew that Finn was a traitor died when the Starkiller Base exploded, and for some reason word didn't filter all the way back to the academy. Perhaps the leaders withheld the information for fear that Finn would either become a figurehead for fellow traitors, or would undermine the power of the Empire.

Are you excited for Star Wars: Episode VIII? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.